Break Your Heart
A reckless dare leads to a breakthrough in Abel’s search for its missing residents. Cast * Sam Yao * Janine De Luca * Paula Cohen * Kefilwe Lobatse * El Kwargho * Tony Plot We've Got Something Sam and Janine are in the comms shack keeping a weary eye open for any sign of the missing Abel residents. Just as they are about to shut down for the night, a tracker signal comes back online. Back to Square One The signal is intermittent as you and Paula head out to investigate. Janine explains that Runner 12 swallowed his tracker as a dare, and that the mysterious transmission you are picking up is emitting from his colon. Don't Look Back As you follow the transmission along a dried out riverbed, some zoms decide to join the party. As you see them start to climb down the walls of the canyon, Janine realises there must be something hidden here that somebody is trying to protect. It Looks Like a Door After Paula escapes from a close shave, Janine muses about what might happen if she were to be bitten. Paula reminds her that even though the zombies could not infect her again, they could still do significant damage. Here it Comes New Canton reckon they can flood the riverbed again, which would knock your undead pursuers off their feet. As Sam is explaining the plan, he is interrupted by Dr Lobatse, whom Janine has called in an attempt to figure out why El Kwargho’s transmitter has turned back on. The doctor kindly offers a hypothesis despite the chilly atmosphere in the comms shack. Find That Transmitter You brace yourself against the zombie-saturated water roaring along the riverbed, but Sam wants you to climb higher up the cliff in order to get closer to the concealed door - incidentally, this seems to be where the signal is coming from. Once you’re inside, Paula notices a Comansys logo. You’re inside, but you’ve got to hurry - those zoms won’t hold off for long. It's Not a Zom... As you run through the bunker, Paula sees a row of chest freezers - the same as Van Ark used to preserve the infected. With trepidation, she begins to open them, hoping Maxine is not going to be one of the icy inhabitants. She finds El Kwargho - not a zombie, but he is dead. As you’re about to evacuate, a chest bursts open to reveal Tony, a teenage boy from London. Transcript beeps, someone types on a keyboard JANINE DE LUCA: Anything? SAM YAO: Nothing. JANINE DE LUCA: Try again tomorrow. New base commander will be here by then. She’s coming straight from the Ministry. They might have some new leads to follow up. We never really investigated the farms to the west. SAM YAO: That’s because they’re swarming with fast zoms! Like, everywhere is swarming with - sighs Look, even if we wanted to, we couldn’t get up there! beeping JANINE DE LUCA: sighs System’s glitching again. I’ll just turn it off - signal beeps Wait, look at that! SAM YAO: If this is another joke, Janine… I have to tell you that it’s not funny when you pretend we’ve found Maxine, or Ed, or someone, and it’s actually a cow! … signal continues beeping Crap! JANINE DE LUCA: Yep. SAM YAO: rustling Almost everyone’s out! Who’ve we even got - ? Crap! squeaks Runner Five, Runner Twenty-three, gates, now! Raise the gates, they’re coming! siren, gates raising Runner Five, Runner Twenty-three, move! We’ve got something! signal beeps SAM YAO: Yes, that way, keep going! It’s - oh, damn! The signal’s fading in and out. PAULA COHEN: How can there be a signal? Seven mind-controlled people from Abel walked out that night, and none of them were carrying trackers or transmitters. If I’d thought of it, I’d have stapled one to Maxie’s clothes. JANINE DE LUCA: It’s an unusual story, actually. Runner Twelve, calls himself “El Khwargo” - SAM YAO: - he never turns down a dare. JANINE DE LUCA: About three days before our people left, we gave the runners trackers, rather like those New Canton have. And someone in the mess hall dared him to - it was very silly, and a waste of valuable equipment! SAM YAO: It’s not so silly now! PAULA COHEN: Dared him to what? JANINE DE LUCA: sighs Dared him to swallow his tracker, Runner Twenty-three. PAULA COHEN: So that signal… SAM YAO: - is probably coming from El Khwargo’s colon, yes. PAULA COHEN: But it’s been weeks. Why has it turned on now? SAM YAO: Well, we don’t know. But the battery’s wearing out, and the signal’s not strong enough to pinpoint from this distance. You have to get there quickly, and locate it on the ground. It’s our only lead! If we don’t find it in time… PAULA COHEN: We’re back to square one. I can go faster. You with me, Five? footsteps PAULA COHEN: Was this river dry last time we came this way? SAM YAO: Uh, it was a sort of canal, and it was definitely full of water a few weeks ago. That’s - that’s weird. JANINE DE LUCA: It has been rather unseasonably dry? SAM YAO: Mm, yeah, but… Look, that river’s usually deep. The sides of the canyon Five and Twenty-three are running down must be, what? PAULA COHEN: Three stories high? At least. That’s deeper than a canal. moans JANINE DE LUCA: You’ve got company. PAULA COHEN: We see them. Five zoms on our six o’ clock. SAM YAO: No, twenty zoms, approaching from your four. JANINE DE LUCA: And another pack a little further away, but approaching fast, from your nine. PAULA COHEN: There! Five, you see that? Those zoms are climbing down the walls of the canyon! JANINE DE LUCA: There’s obviously something here someone wants to protect. The wise strategy would be to abort the mission now. We can return in greater numbers. PAULA COHEN: You said the tracker signal’s getting weaker. SAM YAO: Yeah, it’s uh, yeah. Oh, it’s barely there now. PAULA COHEN: There are no buildings here. Nothing obvious. If we’re going to find whatever they’re trying to protect, we have to do it now! We can outrun them. It’s our only chance to find Maxine. JANINE DE LUCA: Five, I’m not sure risking your life is the best course of action here. We’re supposed to have frozen all operations until the new base commander arrives so that - oh! SAM YAO: Don’t look back, they’re right behind you! Just keep running! growls roars, a gun is cocked and fired PAULA COHEN: Oh, Christ, Five! That was close! It almost got me. Thanks! I don’t know what to… thank you. SAM YAO: You’ve picked off the four nearest, but you can’t have more than a few bullets left, can you? PAULA COHEN: Three. SAM YAO: There are - sighs more zombies than that. Keep moving! JANINE DE LUCA: Uh, what would happen to you if you were bitten by a zombie, Doctor Cohen? You’re already infected, you have to have those plasmapherisis treatments at New Canton, so it’s not like they could infect you again. PAULA COHEN: It’s not like they could infect me again, so you might think I’m being a typical Jewish neurotic about the whole zombie situation. But you see, they could surge over me in a tidal wave of decaying flesh, sink their jaws into my arms, my neck, my stomach, pull out my still-pulsing intestines, leave their finger joints inside my chest cavity in their eagerness to get to my lungs, and fight over which of them gnaws out my eyeballs. JANINE DE LUCA: Ah, yes? Good point. PAULA COHEN: The tracking signal’s still directly ahead of us. SAM YAO: Look at the head cam, though! There’s nothing there. Not a building, not even a trailer or tent. JANINE DE LUCA: Signal’s fading. Someone could have simply dropped the tracker here. PAULA COHEN: Do you see something halfway up the side of the canal though? Way off in the distance. JANINE DE LUCA: It looks like - SAM YAO: It looks like a door, in the wall of a recently drained canal. moans PAULA COHEN: And someone really doesn’t want us getting to it. Come on. PAULA COHEN: Halfway there. Then all we have to do is scale a twenty foot wall, with zombies on our tail. SAM YAO: Ah, now we might have some help for you there. New Canton sent out a couple of runners to the sort of um, the dam-lock-gate-thingy at the far end of the canal. They reckon they might be able to flood the riverbed again, knock the zoms off their feet, buy you some time. You’ll be alright if you know it’s coming. opens KEFILWE LOBATSE: Knock knock! Anyone home? SAM YAO: We’re just in the middle of a – oh, it’s you. KEFILWE LOBATSE: I brought you something. It’s Kit Kats you like, isn’t it? SAM YAO: Curly Wurlys, actually. JANINE DE LUCA: I sent for Doctor Lobatse. Doctor, I don’t believe we’ve met since your transfer from New Canton. We have a rather odd query for you. A transmitter that someone swallowed has recently reactivated. Do you have any thoughts on intestinal processes that might account for that? SAM YAO: Is this really the time for that? JANINE DE LUCA: It might give us vital information that could save one of your runners’ lives, Mister Yao. KEFILWE LOBATSE: We know that the process of zombification raises the temperature of the body. That might - laughs I’m hypothesizing here, I haven’t seen any studies. But it might cause any electronic equipment within the body to glitch. And then come back online when core temperature cools. SAM YAO: But you haven’t seen any studies. So, you don’t know. KEFILWE LOBATSE: There are no studies of what happens when a person eats a transmitter and then becomes a zombie. PAULA COHEN: She’s not a zombie. Can’t be. JANINE DE LUCA: I’m afraid we have to accustom ourselves to the idea that our missing residents might, indeed, have succumbed to the zom - SAM YAO: No. KEFILWE LOBATSE: It’s only one hypothesis - SAM YAO: Well, it’s not a good hypothesis, alright? Ed’s not a zom, and Khwargo’s not a zom, and Maxine’s not a zom. And you’re just our replacement doctor until she gets back! And you should think of another hypothesis. Okay, guys? The New Canton runners at the dam are about to send the water gushing in. Be prepared to get your feet wet, in three, two, one… explosion SAM YAO: Uh, well, that didn’t work quite as we thought it would. What happened? Oh, right. Damn. Um, guys. Whoever drained that canal apparently set the lock to blow if anyone tried to tamper with it. God, it doesn’t rain, but it pours. How’s the uh, Amelia situation going, Janine? JANINE DE LUCA: I’ve got it under control. Stay with your runners. SAM YAO: Uh, yeah, okay, don’t worry about that. The thing is, yeah? The final gate’s going to give way at any moment, and when it does, there’ll be a tidal wave of water coming towards you, washing along a hundred hungry zombies. rattles and creaks SAM YAO: Here it comes! Run! floods the canal moan SAM YAO: They’re coming! Two or three of them - yeah, they’re grabbing hold of the cliff face, they’re coming for you! growls PAULA COHEN: Ah! Five! One of them’s got me by the foot! groans, is stricken by a weapon, splashes into the water Okay, okay. Thanks. I think that’s the second time you’ve saved my life today! KEFILWE LOBATSE: That was wonderful work, Runner Five! SAM YAO: Five knows that! Five, if you can just get a bit higher up the cliff - yeah, that’s it. The door’s concealed by that overhang, but if you grab onto that um, that jutty-out bit, you could lever yourself up. PAULA COHEN: We’re here. A metal doorway halfway up the side of a canyon. JANINE DE LUCA: The signal’s fading, but whatever it is has to be through that door. opens, footsteps, door shuts PAULA COHEN: It’s - ooh, it’s dark in here. It’s - oh. Comansys. Logo on the inside of the door. JANINE DE LUCA: The transmitter signal should be along the tunnel ahead of you. Find the lights. lights turn on PAULA COHEN: Oh no. I recognize that equipment. growls, is stricken That one’s out for the count, but those zoms are coming, and the bloody door won’t lock. We’ve got to get moving. We have to find that transmitter. Come on. footsteps signal beeps, footsteps SAM YAO: It’s that way, that way! You’re almost on top of it. PAULA COHEN: There’s a - oh. SAM YAO: What are you seeing? Ugh, it’s so dark in there, I can barely see anything. PAULA COHEN: Lights are broken. It’s uh, it’s a row of chest freezers. The kind we – the kind Van Ark used to preserve uh, people who were infected. SAM YAO: Oh. Right. But this wasn’t one of Van Ark’s test centers. PAULA COHEN: Not so far as I know. The equipment’s Comansys, though. That tech company. He was obsessed with finding out what they were up to. You know, when he’d had too much to drink, he used to do this mad ramble about how they were responsible for the zombie plague really. I think he was just trying to make himself feel less culpable, but… If Maxie’s here… JANINE DE LUCA: If she’s there, it’s better you find out now, Doctor Cohen. To know the truth. PAULA COHEN: Yes, I - yes. JANINE DE LUCA: The signal’s coming from your left. Open the freezers on that side of the room. PAULA COHEN: freezer Empty. freezer Empty. freezer Oh! SAM YAO: What is it? PAULA COHEN: It’s one of your runners. Just lying, peaceful. Not a zom, but he’s dead. Number twelve on his jacket. SAM YAO: Khwargo. PAULA COHEN: I don’t understand. None of our research would have led to ordinary people being mind-controlled. Non-zombie people, I mean. And anyway, Van Ark’s dead! He’s dead, I saw his body. opens SAM YAO: Guys, did that freezer just open by itself? Is it a zom? TONY: Help me! collapses PAULA COHEN: Not a zom, a teenage boy. He’s on his absolute - TONY: Five. You’re Five. I saw you die. Codex Artefact Ministry of Recovery Note 15 Ministry of Recovery Bulletin 15 Increase in zombie threat After the pleasant lull in zombie activity over the past few months, we are now unfortunately certain that most of the remaining zombies are not susceptible to the “attenuated formula” of the Myers Spray. The numbers of resistant zombies increase daily. Please discontinue use of the Myers Spray - relying on it will only increase the danger. Fast zombies, as previously, continue to be resistant. Category:Mission Category:Season Three